Parma pulled off the biggest surprise of the Serie A season on Saturday, with the crisis-hit club beating the runaway leaders Juventus, 1-0, inflicting what was only the second defeat of the campaign for Massimiliano Allegri’s side.

José Mauri scored the only goal of the game on the hour mark, while a string of fine saves from the Parma goalkeeper, Antonio Mirante, also helped Roberto Donadoni’s side to a memorable win.

Parma were declared bankrupt last month and their players have not been paid all season, but they have now strung a series of positive results together, with a 1-0 victory over Udinese in midweek and last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Internazionale.

They are still in last place, 10 points from safety, with nine matches remaining. “We are still bottom of the table even if winning against Juventus is a reason to celebrate,” Donadoni said. “We are happy for our fans and glad that we managed to give ourselves something good in this awful year.

“We are far from safety but I think it’s right to give credit to the lads who have done something extraordinary. We want to finish this season with our heads held high.”

Juventus, who host Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday, have a 14-point lead over Roma, who visit Torino on Sunday.

“It was an important match which would have allowed us to almost seal the title and to remain with the same advantage over Roma and Lazio with eight matches remaining,” Allegri said. “We didn’t get that. We needed to be more mature, so that if we couldn’t win at least we wouldn’t have lost.

“The fact is that when you don’t play well you don’t win. We weren’t in the match. We played OK in the first half and didn’t do anything in the second, deserving to lose. It will be a different game against Monaco, but today the match against Parma was the most important.”